The National Archives | Access to Archives Page 1 of 51 Search the archives Advanced search About us Education Records Information management Shop online You are here: Home > Search the archives > Access to Archives > Records Access to Archives Part of the UK archives network West Sussex Record Office The Buckle Papers The Buckle Papers The entire contents of this catalogue are shown below. Browse the hierarchical structure instead Reference BUCKLE Covering dates 1593-1963 Held by West Sussex Record Office Extent 67 series The main collection was deposited in May 1976 by CS Buckle, Esq., of Slinfold. A further Source of collection was deposited in 1977 by Lieutenant Commander CEA Buckle of Westbourne and acquisition has been catalogued in the Appendix. Creators Buckle family of Banstead, Surrey Related Other records of the Buckle family can be found in Surrey Record Office information Administrative history : The Buckle family were originally settled in the county of Westmorland, residing at Brough-under-Stainmore, and owning estates which bordered on the North Riding of Yorkshire in the reign of Henry VII. (The Biographer, No. 4, Vol. 1, p. 41 (see Buckle MS. 405)) The interests of the family were not confined to the north, however, and from the early 16th century they were possessors of properties in the City of London. Sir Cuthbert Buckle (1533-1594), a Vintner, was a Citizen and Alderman of London, and served the offices of Sheriff in 1582 and Lord Mayor in 1593-4. He lived in Mark Lane, and owned lands and houses in the parishes of St. Mary-at-Hill and St. Dunstan-in-the-East. (Buckle MS. 25.) His only son, the first Sir Christopher Buckle (1590-1660), migrated to Surrey, and acquired lands at Mitcham. In 1614 he purchased from William Merland the estate of Burrough, since called Burgh, in Banstead co. Surrey, together with the mansion house built by the Merlands in 1550 and known as Burgh House. This became the centre of the Buckle estate until the sale in 1846 to the sixth Earl of Egmont. Sir Christopher evidently spared nothing in his endeavours to build up the family fortunes, and is reputed to have sold his father's chain of office so as to buy a flock of sheep. (The Biographer, op. cit., p. 41; Buckle MS. 1. See Catalogue of the Cowdray Archives (W.S.C.C. 1964) for references to the Banstead estate after 1846. Sir Christopher had three sons and seven daughters by his marriage to Catherine, the daughter of Sir Martin Barnham of Hollingbourne in Kent. His eldest son, the second Sir Christopher Buckle (1629-1712), married Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir William Lewis, Bart., of Borden, East Meon, in Hampshire, who had been imprisoned by Cromwell after the Civil War. His eldest daughter, Judith (1612-1676), married Robert Mason of Greenwich, Doctor of Civil Law, and so began the Mason line of the family which produced two important naval commanders. (Buckle MS. 25; Buckle MS. 1.) The surviving papers of Captain Christopher Mason (born c1634) include his commission to the command of HMS Oxford signed by Charles II and Samuel Pepys, diarist and clerk to the Admiralty. (Buckle MS. 92.) The second Sir Christopher Buckle was succeeded in 1712 by his grandson, also Christopher Buckle (1684- 1759). The property in London had suffered severely during the Great Fire, but Christopher was able to finance the building of Nork House in Surrey in 1740 and to give Burgh House to his eldest son. His fifth and youngest son, Mathew Buckle (1718-84), entered the navy in 1731 at the age of 13, and was one of five members of the Buckle family ultimately to rise to Flag Rank. Mathew Buckle was one of the most distinguished naval officers of the 18th century, and was in continuous command of fighting ships for nineteen years from 1744. His career is unfolded in a fine series of Log Books which survives for the period 1731-62 (excepting the years 1743-44), and in his Letter and Order Books for 1744-48. (Buckle MSS. 96-103, 105-106.) His first command was HMS Russell, a third rate ship of 80 guns and 650 men, of which he was appointed Captain on 29 May 1745. The country was then at war with France and Spain, and the navy was blockading their fleets in Toulon and Cartagena. England maintained a large fleet in the Mediterranean and on the coast http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=182 -buckle&cid= -1 12/ 30/ 2011 The National Archives | Access to Archives Page 2 of 51 of Spain, mostly employed in cruising and intercepting enemy trade. Under the command of Mathew Buckle, the Russell became the Flag Ship of Admiral Henry Medley, but when the Admiral removed his Flag to the Boyne in May 1747, it was intended that the Russell should return to England. About 200 of her men were discharged to other ships, and her sail and gun power were reduced. On leaving Gibraltar she gave chase to the Glorioso, a Spanish man-of-war of 70 guns and 760 men, and on 8 October 1747, after a close action of six hours off Cape St. Vincent, she succeeded in capturing her prize. The engagement is described in detail in the log book of the Russell and in the despatches copied in the Captain's Letter and Order book. (Buckle MS. 6; Buckle MS. 98; Buckle MS. 105.) The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed in October 1748, but the peace was an uneasy one. The French continued to hamper British trade and settlement on the west coast of Africa, and Captain Buckle commanded several vessels in the protection of British interests in Africa. Hostilities were resumed in 1756, and in January 1758 Buckle was appointed Flag Captain to Admiral Sir Edward Boscawen in the Namur, a vessel of 90 guns. He took part in the siege and capture of Louisburg, Cape Breton, in July of that year, and served in the same ship when Boscawen defeated the French fleet under de la Clue off Lagos on 17 August 1759. In November 1759 the Namur was part of Admiral Sir Edward Hawke's fleet which destroyed the French fleet under de Conflan in Quiberon Bay. Mathew Buckle remained in command of the Namur until 13 February 1762, and during that time was employed in maintaining the blockade of the French coast. (Buckle MS. 6.) Apart from the Log Books and the Letter and Order Books, a series of miscellaneous papers survive relating to the naval engagements of this period. (Buckle MSS. 107-110, 201-213.) Mathew Buckle was made a Rear-Admiral on 18 October 1770, and was second-in-command at Spithead in 1770-71. He was promoted to Vice-Admiral of the Blue on 31 March 1775, and commanded the fleet in the Downs in 1778-79. On 19 March 1779 he was promoted to Admiral of the Blue, and in 1783 was offered the command of the Fleet, which he declined on account of ill health. (Buckle MS. 6; The Biographer, op. cit., p. 41. The house at Nork was made over to Mathew Buckle by his father, but after his death in 1784 the house was let to Lord Arden on a long lease, and was eventually sold to him in 1812. His elder and only surviving son, Mathew (1770-1855), was apprenticed as Captain's servant with his first cousin Christopher Mason in 1777, but it is not thought that he went to sea until 17 April 1786, when he entered service as Able-Seaman on board HMS Salisbury, a 50 gun ship engaged on the Newfoundland station. Mathew was rated Midshipman in 1787, and for the next six years was chiefly employed on the Newfoundland and West India stations, receiving his first commission as Lieutenant on 21 January 1791. In February 1793 he joined the Royal Sovereign, flagship of Vice-Admiral Thomas Graves, second-in-command of the Channel Fleet under Admiral Earl Howe, and was aboard that ship during the celebrated actions against the French fleet under Villaret Joyeuse on 29 May and 1 June 1794. Despite having been deprived of the use of his limbs by rheumatic fever, he remained at his post throughout those actions, and earned the favourable notice of his commanding officer. (Buckle MS. 6; Buckle MSS. 149, 153.) He was appointed Commander of the sloop Ferret on 6 December 1796, and commanded the store ship Camel on the North American and West India station from 24 November 1800 to 24 September 1802. In the latter year he was promoted to the rank of Post Captain, and from 3 May 1804 to 28 February 1810 he was in charge of the Portsmouth division of the Sea Fencibles. During these six years Buckle constantly applied for a command at sea, and was eventually induced to descend on the Admiralty, commissions in hand, to state his case. He subsequently received two commands on the Leith station between 1810-1813, but as he had not served sufficient sea-time he was, to his intense mortification, placed on the Retired List of Admirals. He became a Rear-Admiral on 10 January 1837, a Vice-Admiral on 9 November 1846, and an Admiral on 30 July 1852. (Buckle MS. 6; Buckle MSS. 149, 153.) Buckle evidently suffered disillusionment during his career, being denied the sea command to which he felt he was entitled, and his disenchantment was no doubt enhanced by the progressive deterioration of eyesight which diminished his prospects of active service and ultimately culminated in blindness.